It is amazing the array of software packages in today's market place that call themselves Reliability-centered Maintenance packages yet they often have little if anything to do with either the RCM standard, or with the original report written by Nowlan and Heap.
Yet they are positioning themselves as RCM packages, and nobody is calling this into question!
Showing posts with label Technology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Technology. Show all posts
Monday, 31 December 2012
Monday, 22 November 2010
Learning to be a geek(ish)
In recent time I have been learnign a lot of stuff from iTunes University. If you aren't aware of it, and I wasn't, it is a place where many of the top line universities from around the globe have posted entire semesters of seminars and courses.
In the past few months I have learned quite a bit about programming in Java, Cocoa (For iPhone Apps) and electronics. As a lifetime devotee to the asset management cause, I find this to be a fantastic way to spread into other areas.
You cannot (I believe) work in physical asset management today without appreciating software, the array of hardware gadgets we work with, and the technology behind it all.
Which brings me to my point... I was wondering for a while if you could use an iPhone as an infrared camera.
Well, after finding some fake IR apps and asking around a lot, it turns out that you cannot. The camera needs to be modified electronically in order to produce an effective IR camera. WHich is where the Geek element comes in...
One of the projects I work on when I get time at home these days, is to create my own Thermographic camera, and hopefully design it dow to a point where it becomes an ultra portable device.
From what I have seen so far I think this means I am going to have to sacrifice some accuracy, but the extremely high end devices ($15,000+) would only be truly necessary in only a handful of cases. (Aside from the ego/gadget thing that maintenance people tend to have)
This is not a commercial project. Not by any stretch of the imagination. Rather it is a great hobby thing to do and something that hopefully will enable me and my son to have some fun while we work on it. And who knows, we may find a way to put other gadgets into here also...
Not easy finding a microbolometer in Perth Australia however...
In the past few months I have learned quite a bit about programming in Java, Cocoa (For iPhone Apps) and electronics. As a lifetime devotee to the asset management cause, I find this to be a fantastic way to spread into other areas.
You cannot (I believe) work in physical asset management today without appreciating software, the array of hardware gadgets we work with, and the technology behind it all.
Which brings me to my point... I was wondering for a while if you could use an iPhone as an infrared camera.
Well, after finding some fake IR apps and asking around a lot, it turns out that you cannot. The camera needs to be modified electronically in order to produce an effective IR camera. WHich is where the Geek element comes in...
One of the projects I work on when I get time at home these days, is to create my own Thermographic camera, and hopefully design it dow to a point where it becomes an ultra portable device.
From what I have seen so far I think this means I am going to have to sacrifice some accuracy, but the extremely high end devices ($15,000+) would only be truly necessary in only a handful of cases. (Aside from the ego/gadget thing that maintenance people tend to have)
This is not a commercial project. Not by any stretch of the imagination. Rather it is a great hobby thing to do and something that hopefully will enable me and my son to have some fun while we work on it. And who knows, we may find a way to put other gadgets into here also...
Not easy finding a microbolometer in Perth Australia however...
Thursday, 21 October 2010
Innovative asset management devices (A good find on the net)
The Pocket Lube is not something they seem to promote heavily. In fact it was the last link on one of the major links. So I had to dig around a bit before I came to it.
But the concept is brilliant. I am not sure if this is new or if there are others out there but it really impressed me as a very innovative way to apply existing technologies.
It seems to work like this. The main input is a noise sensor. (Not ultrasonics as I read it, but a noise sensor.)
This is used prior to greasing, during greasing and after greasing. The difference in noise levels (presumably) has then been used to determine the right level of lubrication, the lube type and points, as well as trending issues like lubrication usage and providing optimized lubrication routes etcetera.
I think that is pretty cool, and pretty innovative. Gadgets tend to be VA, Thermography or calculators of some kind. This one was right off the wall.
When people start dealing with the complexities associated with lubrication routines they invariably refer to the manufacturers guides. Virtually nobody, or very few people, actually have a good enough understanding in this area to know if this the right lube for this application of this asset? Is the frequency right? How much should we apply and how much are we actually using?
Great little product, incredibly under marketed by the product manufacturer, and something that could quickly help companies to make a big difference.
Have you ever heard of anything similar?
How can SAP break into the SME industry market space?
I read with interest and some entertainment the article on this mining blog about SAP Australia and NZ teaming up with another company to target the SME mining industry.
(You always need to be wary of companies that have a continent in their names - a rule I live by...)
These sorts of press releases and posts are beyond hilarious. They should be titled "How can we convince small to medium companies to regress to the early 1990's?".
SAP will NEVER break into this market space without dramatically changing their business model? Why?
Because at present their business model relies on technologically ignorant CFO's who like sexy reports and transactional control. Nobody has ever been sacked for buying SAP - but companies have gone out of business while waiting for it to fix their problems.
1. Most mid level miners are heavily leveraged. They need to fix their problems NOW, not in 18 months time.
2. SME miners are often dealing with plants in several geographical regions, not just a few miles down the road. Most do not have the cash or the patience to invest in the on-premise infrastructure to carry these behemoths
3. Mining and maintenance processes are pretty much well known these days. There is no reason for them to go through all the BS of mapping them and the whole AS-IS / TO-BE scam.
Here is a prediction for you. (Given that I am absolutely terrible at predictions...) Within 8 years only the very top of town will have the egos and general malaise to pay $80 million for an ERP system implementation...
The rest of us will have worked out better ways to manage this with readily available technologies.
(You always need to be wary of companies that have a continent in their names - a rule I live by...)
These sorts of press releases and posts are beyond hilarious. They should be titled "How can we convince small to medium companies to regress to the early 1990's?".
SAP will NEVER break into this market space without dramatically changing their business model? Why?
Because at present their business model relies on technologically ignorant CFO's who like sexy reports and transactional control. Nobody has ever been sacked for buying SAP - but companies have gone out of business while waiting for it to fix their problems.
1. Most mid level miners are heavily leveraged. They need to fix their problems NOW, not in 18 months time.
2. SME miners are often dealing with plants in several geographical regions, not just a few miles down the road. Most do not have the cash or the patience to invest in the on-premise infrastructure to carry these behemoths
3. Mining and maintenance processes are pretty much well known these days. There is no reason for them to go through all the BS of mapping them and the whole AS-IS / TO-BE scam.
4. It is too expensive. Period. SME miners and other industry sectors do not suffer from the general confusion over purpose and means that dogs large corporate entities.
Here is a prediction for you. (Given that I am absolutely terrible at predictions...) Within 8 years only the very top of town will have the egos and general malaise to pay $80 million for an ERP system implementation...
The rest of us will have worked out better ways to manage this with readily available technologies.
Monday, 31 May 2010
Where is reliability / maintenance software headed?
I have long been a believer in on-the-web technologies. A big fan of SaaS systems myself I use them regularly in business and in delivering services. In fact most of the world runs a lot like this nowadays.
Except us..While industries from banking to consulting are more and more web based, our companies are fixated with racing towards the old SAP-style architectures of the late 1990's.
I am writing because I stumbled upon an old press release for a company that appeared back near the first internet bubble. A kiwi company called Sparesfinder.com. (Since changed ownership and now based out of the UK)
This is an absolutely great technology, a brilliant idea, and dramatically underused for some reason.
The core concept is simple, to quote their news release:
A brilliant idea.
A way to get rid of excess inventory after taking a decision for technology reasons. Or a way to manage obsolescence, purchasing obsolete stock from other companies after upgrades.
The core idea of releasing capital from purchased inventory, easily.
The trick is though, of course there is a trick, the more people are in it - the more useful it is. But the possibilities are really intriguing. Particularly if it could become a business line for resellers of parts and equipment.
The other is of course emaint.com. Another long lived great little company providing online CMMS to small to medium sized industries.
The benefits of these systems are reaching the "obvious choice" level I think.
Except us..While industries from banking to consulting are more and more web based, our companies are fixated with racing towards the old SAP-style architectures of the late 1990's.
I am writing because I stumbled upon an old press release for a company that appeared back near the first internet bubble. A kiwi company called Sparesfinder.com. (Since changed ownership and now based out of the UK)
This is an absolutely great technology, a brilliant idea, and dramatically underused for some reason.
The core concept is simple, to quote their news release:
The service is totally unique in that it allows individual end-users of spares to trade their excess inventory between each other. Also, because the service is delivered through the internet, it provides all subscribers with a global choice of spares instantly and at the touch of a button.
A brilliant idea.
A way to get rid of excess inventory after taking a decision for technology reasons. Or a way to manage obsolescence, purchasing obsolete stock from other companies after upgrades.
The core idea of releasing capital from purchased inventory, easily.
The trick is though, of course there is a trick, the more people are in it - the more useful it is. But the possibilities are really intriguing. Particularly if it could become a business line for resellers of parts and equipment.
The other is of course emaint.com. Another long lived great little company providing online CMMS to small to medium sized industries.
The benefits of these systems are reaching the "obvious choice" level I think.
- Rent rather than install.
- The fees are generally lower
- Implementation time characteristically lower
- Functionality is between okay and really great.
- Infrastructure is often a browser
- Access is global. In an instant.
Then there is Google Apps Engine.. This is a really great little platform. For those of us in reliability in the early 1990's - it is the Microsoft Access for this period!
A relatively easy to learn, scalable, and robust platform allowing us all to create online business applications. Google have effectively turned business applications open source and free.
The need for data in our game is irrefutable. The means of accessing it, using it and analyzing it is where we really need to be thinking for the next big steps forward in productivity and costs I believe.
Sunday, 5 July 2009
Reliability for every company
During the great ERP boom of the 1980's and 1990's companies have been faced with two choices for their maintenance and reliability software.
1) An SAP style architecture, installed on their own servers and costing several million dollars to implement, or...
2) Some MS Access DB that was generated in house and is not scalable.
Don't misunderstand me, I am very aware of the ties between maintainers and their MS Access databases. In fact it could be said that many of us cut our teeth on MS Access as a way of dealing with recurrent maintenance problems of some sort or other.
But they don't scale too well sadly.
Fortunately there are software systems today that are changing this paradigm. Programs that are as useful, if not more so, than their expensive cousins and available for all of us to use.
1) My favorite online company eMaint. Pioneers in online CMMS, leaders in that field now, and showing the way for software/service providers who will come after them.
The whole idea of SaaS is relatively cheap per user pricing, full web delivered functionality, and data stored on a secure server off premise. (I am sure they can do on premise as well... but I am also sure that the need for that is bound to subside once IT managers get over themselves a little bit)
2) My new favorite Reliability Modeling tool - Raptor!!
A free version still exists online and I use it a lot these days for modeling and testing thoughts on various issues. For me, this is a must have addition to any maintenance practitioners toolkit.
Especially when you consider that commercial versions of this are available for around $10,000 plus these days.
3) Pump energy optimization tool kit. (PSAT) Another tool that I have used a lot in recent years, although nowhere near as much as I would like to.
This one is also free from the Department of Energy along with a range of other powerful energy management tools.
Have a look around at the internet and technology today. There are two very clear trends that are emerging in business software such as this. 1) Many of them are starting to be delivered online, and 2) They are increasingly cheap if not free.
I am dying for maintenance and reliability software to catch up with these trends. There was a bit of a chance with the free software that was doing the rounds recently, but it seems to have fizzled a bit for now.
Interesting time to be in asset management.
1) An SAP style architecture, installed on their own servers and costing several million dollars to implement, or...
2) Some MS Access DB that was generated in house and is not scalable.
Don't misunderstand me, I am very aware of the ties between maintainers and their MS Access databases. In fact it could be said that many of us cut our teeth on MS Access as a way of dealing with recurrent maintenance problems of some sort or other.
But they don't scale too well sadly.
Fortunately there are software systems today that are changing this paradigm. Programs that are as useful, if not more so, than their expensive cousins and available for all of us to use.
1) My favorite online company eMaint. Pioneers in online CMMS, leaders in that field now, and showing the way for software/service providers who will come after them.
The whole idea of SaaS is relatively cheap per user pricing, full web delivered functionality, and data stored on a secure server off premise. (I am sure they can do on premise as well... but I am also sure that the need for that is bound to subside once IT managers get over themselves a little bit)
2) My new favorite Reliability Modeling tool - Raptor!!
A free version still exists online and I use it a lot these days for modeling and testing thoughts on various issues. For me, this is a must have addition to any maintenance practitioners toolkit.
Especially when you consider that commercial versions of this are available for around $10,000 plus these days.
3) Pump energy optimization tool kit. (PSAT) Another tool that I have used a lot in recent years, although nowhere near as much as I would like to.
This one is also free from the Department of Energy along with a range of other powerful energy management tools.
Have a look around at the internet and technology today. There are two very clear trends that are emerging in business software such as this. 1) Many of them are starting to be delivered online, and 2) They are increasingly cheap if not free.
I am dying for maintenance and reliability software to catch up with these trends. There was a bit of a chance with the free software that was doing the rounds recently, but it seems to have fizzled a bit for now.
Interesting time to be in asset management.
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